Peace and Quiet

Benefit of spending the day in bed

Not exactly all day, but some of the day.

I think there are times when we need to take a break. Not a big break, but we need to take some time to unplug from everything around you. And I do not just mean social media, the internet, work, or chores. I mean that you need to sit quiet, away from the everyday. You need time to recharge your batteries. You need time to do absolutely nothing.

Yes, nothing. Not nothing, as in time for yourself to exercise.

Yes, nothing. Not nothing, as in time to garden.

Yes, nothing. Not nothing, as in time to walk the dog.

Yes, nothing. Not nothing, as in time read the news or even a novel.

Yes nothing. Not nothing, as in time to binge watch a show.

Yes nothing. Nothing as in simply laying in bed and resetting your brain and your parameters.

Yes nothing. Nothing as in taking a nap.

I wonder how many of us actually do just that. How many of us take our cues from a 2-year-old and simply fall asleep in the middle of a day. Ok, most 2-year-olds do fight you when you try to put them down for a nap. So maybe instead of how a toddler takes a nap, the old adage sleep like a baby is better.

Sunday actually used to the quiet day, growing up. Well Sort of.

Sunday was always a day for Hebrew school (sunday school for Christians). When that came to an end today there are sports teams and games and practice. Saturdays seem to also be taken up with running the kids around to their activities. Then birthday parties or shopping of one kind or the other.

What I remember about Sundays growing up was sitting at the kitchen table and reading the Sunday paper. (When I was first married we did sit together in bed and read the paper while drinking coffee and sitting quiet. Well, together only if the hubby didn’t have to go into his law firm to work on something a partner decided late on a friday night need to get done over the weekend.)

That Sunday paper was always triple the size of the normal daily paper. It was replete with the news, living/fashion/home, sports, business, crosswords, comics, want ads, magazines, inserts, and editorials. (I remember a lawsuit by a famous actress one year [It was Barbara Bain of the original TV Mission Impossible], because the paper when thrown at her backyard, hit her little pooch and killed the dog because it was so big and heavy)

I personally liked the wedding and birth announcements. While I never put a wedding announcement in the paper, something I was talked out of by my mother, with my mother in lawing agreeing. (My mother thought it was asking for presents, my mother in law I am convinced didn’t want anyone to know I had married her son. I know I have been married 42 years and need to get past the rejection by my in-laws, but it is something that does stay with you, where I remind myself what not to do if my sons ever get married.). However, I did put my younger son’s birth announcement in, and I really enjoyed that. (People I knew peripherally remarked on the fact I named him for his great grandmothers) For my older son honestly I was so overwhelmed when he was born it had not even dawned on me to put his birth announcement in the paper.

So, I was able to tell the world that my younger son had come into being and that he was named for 2 of his maternal great-great grandmothers. Both of these women had quite interesting stories to tell. (And he is quite the piece of work. He definitely takes after them in attitude. )

One was alone in Russia with 7 children for 10 years while her husband was here in the US (escaped being drafted into the Russo-Japanese War). One day she decided to leave with all the children and they tried to steal across the Polish border (Jews were not allowed to leave the Pale of Settlement or enter Poland without permission) and they were all thrown in jail. Yet, eventually they were able to make their way to Mandatory Palestine, where my grandfather survived arab riots (because there was always such peace and tranquility before the rebirth of the State of Israel- that was sarcasm if you couldn’t tell). My grandfather tells me they were going to stay in the Mandate, but his father fatefully got a job here in the US, so they all bordered a ship and crossed the Atlantic. The interesting thing was, since they were coming from a British colony they actually had visas so they came through the port of Rhode Island as persons from Palestine (hmm, I wonder if I am entitled to UNRWA payments. The truth is that the British were more than happy to give Jews exit visas, it was the entry visas into Mandatory Palestine that they stopped giving out.) My great granmother’s name was Toby.

My other grandmother, came to the US as an 11 year old with her 14 year old sister. I wonder what it must have been like as a parent to send your child halfway around the world without you, putting them in danger and at risk. How horrible was life back then, and how frightening, that such a trip with all its unknowns was a risk worth taking for your female children? What must it have been like for an 11 and 14 year old to do this on their own? (I think of this when I hear stories of families sending their children illegally into the US. Yes, they are breaking US law, but what kind of hell are they living in that sending their child here is worth all the risks the coyotes represent?) My great grandmother went to work right away as a mother’s helper sending back money to her family in what is now Sighet, Romania (back then it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire). She worked and was able to bring them all here. I was told that at one point she was going to return to Sighet as well, but met her future husband and stayed in the US. My great grandmother’s name was Golda.

Interesting turn of events of course all led to my child being born. Without the intervention of destiny, my mother, I and then my sons would not be here. It is interesting to contemplate your ancestors. In fact, I just got emailed a census paper from Ancestry.com, showing a page of the census for the year 1949. It had my grandfather, grandmother, uncles, mother and Bubbe Golda listed as members of the household. It was interesting to contemplate their lives back then. The census worker coming to the door and asking them about their lives. Truth is other than some birth certificates, and immigration papers, there is not much of a past for my side of the family. Most of my past was put to the torch along with my People by the Nazis and their collaborators. (My grandfather had a married sister who did not leave their little shtetl back one hundred years ago. Word reached my grandfather’s family that when the Nazis demanded that her husband put his family on trucks to be driven out of town he refused, so they gunned down the entire family on the spot. The rest of the villagers apparently were killed at a place called Babi Yar)

(My husband’s family on the other hand have been here in the US since before the US Revolution, and we have a family tree with names going back to the late 1600s. Yes he is Jewish too. And yes, he is descended from a revolutionary war hero. Go figure. Here’s a story- when I was in 7th grade, my sister and I along with maybe 2 other children were the only Jewish students in our middle school. One day in history class there was a blurb about a revolutionary war hero who was Jewish. Suddenly, this little Jewish-American girl, who thought she had no stake in the history of the US, felt like she belonged to her country. By the way, the descendant of that Jewish American war hero was who I married. [weird right or fate?] Belonging is so important. That is why these months whether it’s Black American history, Asian American history, American Women’s history, Jewish American history month, or any ethnic/gender American history is so important to children. I remember what I felt like as the only Jewish child in my history class at 13 years old. I also remember the feeling of pride that came after reading that blurb.)

See these are the things you think about when you clear your mind, lay down in bed, get under the covers in the middle of the day.

Truth is in today’s world, I very rarely take time to just nap. If I fall asleep it’s happenstance. I may burrow my way under the covers in the middle of the day, but I simply cannot turn everything off. I open my laptop and begin streaming. If there is nothing on one of the channels we subscribe to, I go to YouTube to see if anyone I follow has posted anything fun. It was during a comparison review of different hotels in Bora Bora when I found myself waking from a midday snooze.

Honestly, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I love to watch these travel vloggers (as I have mentioned previously), its me living vicariously knowing that no way in hell will I ever get to Bora Bora, fly in the 1st class apartment on Etihad airlines, or cruise in the Ultimate Family Suite on Wonder of the Seas (Ok that’s not just because of cost, but because I am never going to cruise, even if someone else pays for it. As I have said there are things in the ocean that will eat you. Yet, it is fun to watch.)

But after I woke up I felt alot better and sort of laughed at myself for falling asleep. I was neither sick nor old, well old in the sense that I have moved to Florida living in The Villages (which is never going to happen no matter how old I am, but you get the idea). But I am old enough to receive Social Security if I wanted. (But I am holding out to 70 for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is as long as you work and make over a certain amount, the government doesn’t give you your money. So no point in trying to apply for it until work is really in the back view mirror.)

Meanwhile, after my sojourn in dreamland, I felt refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the day.

What I forgot to do was finish that day’s crossword puzzle. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it. With the hints turned on I can finish every puzzle. I simply just forgot about it. So much for recharging my brain.

But I did finish that forgotten puzzle this morning, before tackling the new day puzzles.

Then made beef stew and asparagus soup.

Now I’m going to watch some YouTube, stream a show, and watch the red carpet for the Oscars. Not the Oscars itself. I don’t care who wins and don’t want to be preached to about how awful we all are by the most privileged in our society, who get to play pretend for a living. But I do like the pretty clothes, jewels, shoes and handbags.

And yes, I also just bought 2 peace lily plants at Costco yesterday. They came in a set.

IT IS DAY 513 OF THE HOSTAGES BEING STARVED AND HELD IN THE TERROR DUNGEONS OF GAZA 🎗️

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